Pope Benedict XVI joins twitter. This was made known by the Vatican on Monday 3rd December 2012 when it announced that Pope Benedict XVI will join Twitter with the handle @pontifex.

“@Pontifex” was chosen for the pope’s personal Twitter account because it is not just Latin for pope, but also means bridge-builder, something the Vatican wants to do through social media. The pope has had a Facebook account for some time, and he has tweeted before, too, though that time he was using the Vatican’s Twitter account. @pontifex will be the pope’s personal account.

For now, Pope Benedict XVI has about 497,000+ Twitter followers, Greg Burke, senior media adviser to the Vatican told a news conference that the papal tweets will be spiritual, and added that “all the pope’s tweets are the pope’s words. Nobody is going to be putting words into his mouth.” But he won’t tweet before Wednesday, Dec. 12, according to the Vatican.

So yes, 497k+ followers without a tweet yet and its expected to rise fast..also, Its already an authenticated account on twitter with a blue pass badge.